


Family Matters

by ihaventsleptyetits4amoops (themechanicsnightmare)



Series: Family Matters [1]
Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Families of Choice, Found Family, Siblings, both adopted and otherwise, some slight mangling of timelines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26343580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themechanicsnightmare/pseuds/ihaventsleptyetits4amoops
Summary: The Staff of Hermes Trismegistus turned out not to be necessary to keep Kassandra alive after all.Or, in the weeks after Merrick, Nile meets two more old immortals.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Family Matters [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933519
Comments: 1
Kudos: 57





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MandoKain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MandoKain/gifts).



> I watched this movie. I loved this movie. I replayed this game. Here we are.
> 
> I blame Kain for their shameless encouragement.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, family is waiting under a volcano in Greece while your youngest brother makes the biggest mistake of his 250 year life.

“Is there a reason I’m dreaming about Greeks in airports?” Nile asked over breakfast. “And none of you seem to be freaking out about it.”

“Oh,” Andy said, face brightening. “They must be back from Thera!”

“Thera?”

“Santorini.”

Nile just looked at Andy. Joe snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think that was the question, boss.” When nothing else seemed forthcoming, he sighed. “There are two more of us,” he explained. “They had business in Greece, something about the place they went interferes with the dreams.”

“And the cell signal,” Nicky added, frowning as his phone vibrated furiously in his hand.

“And the cell signal,” Joe agreed. “If you’re seeing them, that means they’re heading back.”

Nile turned to Andy. “You said there were four of you!”

“I said I _led_ four,” Andy corrected, “Those two assholes never listen to me.”

It was true. The older one had been her own boss for far too long before Andy found them to change her ways now. The younger’s early life had made him disinclined to just do as he was told, his sister being the notable exception. Most of the time.

Nile protested Andy’s logic, but Nicky tuned it out to focus on reading through his incredible new backlog of texts. The majority were from Alexios. They started fairly mundane, complaints about the travel, that he was bored, that Kassandra was bullying him. Nicky guessed that these were all from the last two weeks, finally arriving. For the same time period, Nicky had only one message from Kassandra, advising him to “ignore Alexios, he’s just being whiny”. The more recent messages actually needed his attention.

 **Alex:** hey we’re heading back where are you we got a flight from Krete to LHR but we can go anywhere from there

 **Alex** : how was Marrakesh Booker had a job for you guys right

 **Alex:** also why are we dreaming about a new kid

 **Alex:** do we have a new baby sister

Nicky took a moment to mourn that Alex had never learned to punctuate texts before replying.

 **Nicky:** Her name is Nile. She’s great. No need to get a connecting flight, we’re in Wales. The house near Brecon, you know it.

He swallowed down the fresh surge of unpleasant feelings that thinking of Booker brought up. It had only been a week, not that Alex had any way of knowing anything was wrong. Joe must have felt him tense, turning to watch him in concern. Nicky reached over to take his hand, continuing to reply one-handed.

 **Nicky:** As for the rest, we’ll talk about it when you get here. It’s a conversation best had in person.

 **Alex:** well now I’m worried

 **Alex:** you’re all okay right

 **Nicky:** We’re all alive.

 **Alex:** shit

 **Alex:** gotta go my flight’s boarding Kassie sends her love to everyone

Nicky slid his phone back into his pocket with a heavy sigh, abruptly exhausted. Joe’s arms wrapped around his waist, Joe pressing up against his back and he leaned into the comfort, grateful for the reminder that he was there. That he was safe. “They’ll be here this evening,” he said quietly.

Joe hummed against the back of his neck.

“Around eight, if they obey the traffic laws.”

“Because we all know Kassandra’s going to do _that_.” Joe laughed. “They’ll be here by seven at the latest.”

They didn’t hear anything for four hours. They’d curled up on the couch, Joe taking a nap with his head in Nicky’s lap while Nicky stared blankly at the pages of his book. His phone buzzed and he reached over to check it carefully, not wanting to disturb Joe.

 **Kass:** Does Merrick Pharmaceuticals have something to do with what you’re not telling us?

Nicky left that text unanswered and went back to pretending to read.

Andy looked up from where she’d been ordered to stay on the other couch by a particularly irate Nile. “Anything important?”

“They’ll be here in a couple of hours.”

She hummed at that but said nothing. Nicky guessed that she was thinking about the unpleasant conversation they’d have to have then. He certainly was.

Joe woke after about an hour and disappeared into the kitchen. Nicky stayed where he was until he heard the knock at the door, then got up to answer it. He glared at Andy to make sure she stayed put. She’d ripped her stitches twice already and he refused to replace them again. She grumbled but didn’t argue.

Nile beat him to the door, opening it cautiously, gun in hand.

“Ah,” Kassandra said, delighted. “You must be our new sister!”

Nile didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, staring at the exuberant Greek. She had the presence of mind to put the gun away at least.

“Kassandra don’t scare her,” Alexios scolded, not that his sister paid him any mind.

“Don’t worry,” Nicky reassured Nile, “She has that effect on most people.”

“Nicolò!” Kassandra protested, smacking his arm and then drawing him into a crushing hug.

“I’m sorry about her, truly,” Alexios told Nile, shoving the other two out of the way so he could get in and close the door. “I’m Alexios of Agiad. Kassandra is my sister.” He shrugged. “People tend to call me Alex these days.”

“I’m Nile.”

“A pleasure.” Behind him, the commotion had drawn Joe out of the kitchen and Kass released Nicky to tackle him instead.

“Yusuf!” she called happily.

“You do get used to her, I promise,” Alexios said, offering his hand to shake. He shifted his grip on the bags he carried. “I’m going to go put these down, I’ll be right back.”

He was coming down the stairs again when Kassie finally stopped menacing their little brothers, instead turning her attention to their elder sister.

“Andromache!” Kassandra paused. “Andy, what’s wrong? Where’s Sebastien?”

No one answered her. The pieces started to fit in Alexios’s head, and they made a damn ugly picture. He gave up on the stairs and jumped the railing instead, three steps taking him to the living room doorway. “This is what you didn’t want to tell us, isn’t it?” he asked Nicky. “He did something.”

It wasn’t a question. Nicky just nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, family is arguing about video games until you fall asleep because that's easier than talking about how you feel.

The explanation took over an hour. Joe fumed the whole time, Nicky remained icy but was no less angry for it. They gripped each other’s hands so tightly that everyone could hear bones creak. Andy just seemed tired. In the end, Kass swore in Greek as old and foul as some of the people they’d killed way back when and stormed out into the garden.

Nile rose as if to follow and Alexios barely managed to raise an arm to stop her. He felt like he was made of stone, hard and stiff and cold. He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Leave her be,” he finally managed to say. “She’d never forgive herself if she hurt you.” He scrubbed his face with shaking hands, then looked up at Andy. “Good job I finished that medical degree, huh?”

Despite everything, or maybe because of it all, Andy laughed.

“You might want to refresh yours, though,” Alexios told Nicky. “Things have changed since the fifties.”

Nicky nodded. “I’d appreciate your help with the paperwork.”

“Sure thing. What schools are you looking at?”

Andy opened her mouth to protest and was stopped by four simultaneous glares.

They steered the conversation to safer topics after that. Mostly Nile, her life and likes and dislikes, her plans for the future if she had any. Alex seemed endlessly curious about her.

“Never had a younger sister before,” he told her when she asked. “The girls are all older than me.” He shrugged. “I’m the oldest of the boys though.” At least, he was now, and by over a thousand years.

“Really?”

“I was born to Myrrine and Nikolaos of Sparta roughly twenty years before the Peloponnesian War. Kassandra’s seven years older than me, but she died seven years sooner. Ish. We’re not sure when. Or where.”

“There was a lot of dying in those days,” Kassandra agreed, sitting down beside her brother. “Most of it other people’s.”

No one mentioned the blood on her knuckles, or the unblemished skin underneath. Alexios silently pulled a pack of wet wipes from his pocket and handed them to her, then carried on like she hadn’t interrupted him.

“We think I died at the Battle of Amphipolis, but we’ve always been a little weird so it’s hard to tell.”

“Weird?”

“Bloodlines,” was all he said to that.

“So, what were you guys doing these last few weeks?” Joe asked before the pause could get too awkward.

“Played Zelda under a volcano for two weeks, then spent a day hiding so my sister’s successor wouldn’t see me and freak out,” Alexios said cheerfully.

“Put up with him for two weeks,” Kassandra said. “Got my grandfather’s spear back. ‘Died’.”

“Put up with me? You asked me to come!”

“Okay,” Joe interrupted before the bickering could really get started, “Important question: which Zelda?”

“Phantom Hourglass.”

“Ah. So, the worst one.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Alexios’s passionate defense sparked an argument which quickly devolved into the pair of them waving their hands around and yelling in what Nile thought was two different languages. Something dragged Nicky in, and Nile stared, dumbfounded, as the yelling became trilingual. Andy and Kass just rolled their eyes.

“Are they arguing about Zelda?” Nile asked.

Kass listened for a moment, then shook her head. “I think they’re just arguing about video games in general, now.” She didn’t seem surprised.

Nile took a moment to process this information. She felt she could be forgiven for that. It wasn’t every day that you saw three several-hundred-year-old men bickering about video games.

“Surprised we know what they are?” Kass asked, not entirely unsympathetically.

“Maybe a little,” Nile admitted.

Alexios turned. “Of course I know what video games are,” he said. “I’m not Andy!” He dodged the pillow Andy threw at him before turning back to the other two. “See, that’s where you’re wrong,” he insisted in English, then lapsed back into Greek.

Nile shrugged, deciding to think more about that later, and went back to the book she’d been reading earlier. Kass started cleaning a spear she’d produced from… somewhere, Andy apparently content to just sit back and watch the proceedings.

The argument finally petered out when Alexios let out an almighty yawn. He slumped sideways onto his sister, startling her out of the doze she’d fallen into. She huffed but settled a hand in his hair. Both of them were asleep moments later.

Andy watched them with a soft smile. “They do that,” she told Nile. “We all do, to some extent. Live long enough and you learn to take your sleep when you can get it.”

That made sense to Nile. The Marines had been similar in that, at least.

“Joe once slept through the building across the street exploding,” Nicky said, giving his partner a fond smile.

“A hundred and fifty years ago,” Joe grumbled, sounding a little sleepy himself. “And no one ever lets me forget it.”

The awake occupants of the room chuckled. Andy stood and stretched, wincing immediately as it pulled at the gunshot wound. She batted Nicky’s hands away as he instinctively reached to steady her. “Speaking of sleep,” she said around a yawn. “I’m turning in. Try not to destroy the house.”

“Night, boss,” Joe called quietly after her, Nicky and Nile both copying.

Nile felt sleepiness creeping up on her as well. Nicky yawned so hard his jaw cracked. The whole thing reminded Nile a little of watching lions at the zoo. One yawned, and within moments the rest of the pride was falling asleep. “Should we wake them up?” she asked, looking at the pair sleeping on the couch. “Make them go to bed?”

Joe shook his head. “Not unless you want to deal with two very irritable Spartan warriors.”

Nicky retrieved the blankets folded over the back of a chair, tossing them over the sleeping siblings. “Sleep well, Nile,” he said softly, taking Joe’s hand to pull him upstairs.

Nile waited until she heard them leave the bathroom before following them upstairs. She stumbled through her bedtime routine with increasingly heavy eyelids, finally collapsing into bed. _Sleep well_ , Nicky had said. And for the first time in over a week, she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer: the opinions expressed about Zelda in this chapter are not necessarily ones the author shares


End file.
